Angel of Europa by Allen Steele Read Free Book Online Page A

fist.
    “I see.” Danzig kept his expression neutral. “And do you have any particular reason to believe this?”
    “Tell him what you told us.” Jose Amado sat next to her, arms folded across his wool Peruvian serape. Everyone here wore two or three layers of clothes; the igloo heaters couldn’t quite keep the cold at bay, and Danzig had to borrow an extra sweater from Walter. “He may not know this yet.”
    Yvonne glanced at Walter; the executive officer nodded, and the engineer reached forward to tap her fingers against a table touchscreen. A wire-frame image of DSV-1 appeared on the table’s glossy black surface, then slowly floated upward to become a holo. As before, the bathyscaphe reminded Danzig of a horseshoe crab: a broad, streamlined hull, with impellers mounted on both port and starboard sides, the observation blister bulging like a swollen belly, tapering back to a long, thin rudder at its tail. Its tether cable was attached to the upper hull just forward of the recessed dorsal hatch.
    “My company has been manufacturing submersibles for over a hundred and fifty years,” Yvonne said as the holo rotated on its vertical axis. “The ones we made for the expedition were adapted from a design that has been successfully used for deep-ocean exploration back on Earth. It can withstand pressures up to 1,500 psi.”
    “Very commendable,” Danzig said. “And your point is …?”
    “Even if some sort of —” Yvonne sighed, shook her head in disbelief “—sea monster were to attack this craft, there is no way … no way! … it could cause enough damage to sink it.” She pointed to the small window in the center of the lower bulge. “Even the observation blister porthole is one-third of meter thick. You could fire a gun straight at it and it wouldn’t shatter. So when Evangeline claims she heard John say that water was coming in, she’s lying.”
    Danzig nodded. Yvonne’s role was to maintain both the robots and the manned submersibles. No one in the expedition knew the equipment better than she did … arguably, not even Evangeline, although she’d had five years experience as a DSV pilot before being recruited by the ISC. On the other hand, Yvonne would be expected to defend her company’s reputation. Given a choice between admitting design failure or putting the blame on the pilot, she’d probably choose the latter.
    “And that’s another thing,” Jose said, raising a hand as if to make a point during a science lecture. “Putting aside for a moment the fact that there’s only one picture of the creature …”
    “And not a very good one at that,” Yvonne added.
    “Yes, right … anyway, I’m a geologist and not a biologist, but even I know that it’s unlikely that something that big would be down there, given what we’ve learned about Europa’s other animal species.”
    “How diet limits size, you mean?” Danzig asked, and Joe nodded. “Yes, Rita said much the same thing when I spoke with her.”
    “With all due respect to Dr. Jimenez,” Walter said, “I disagree.” Jose and Yvonne looked sharply at him as he went on. “She overlooks the fact that a large animal can subsist on a diet of smaller creatures if they’re consumed in sufficient quantity. For example, arctic wolves survive largely upon mice when caribou aren’t available. Before they became extinct, humpback whales consumed krill which they strained through their baleen from seawater.”
    “This isn’t Earth,” Jose said.
    “No, it isn’t.” Walter shrugged. “And that’s a good point. We’ve been on Europa for only a few weeks. Do we really think we’ve learned everything there is to know about this place?”
    “You sound like you’re defending her.” Yvonne’s eyes narrowed.
    Walter frowned, but before he could respond, Danzig politely coughed in his hand. “I think we’d all benefit from looking at this a bit more even-handedly. We’re still investigating the matter. That’s why I’m here …